BATON ROUGE, La. — Henry “Turtle” Thomas has been hired as an assistant baseball coach at LSU, athletic director Joe Dean announced Wednesday. Thomas, an assistant coach at Miami (Fla.) for the last 12 seasons, replaces Jim Schwanke, who announced his resignation June 17 and was reassigned within the athletic department.
Thomas, 46, will serve as the Tigers’ recruiting coordinator and hitting instructor. As the recruiting coordinator and hitting coach at Miami, Thomas helped lead the Hurricanes to six consecutive College World Series appearances (1994-99), including the 1999 national championship.
“Turtle had all of the credentials I was looking for in an assistant coach, said LSU head coach Skip Bertman. “He is an outstanding recruiter, and he is accomplished in coaching offensive baseball. Obviously, he has worked at the highest level in collegiate baseball at Miami, which has made six straight College World Series trips, including the national championship this year.”
“I am thrilled that he has decided to join our staff, and I feel confident he will be a tremendous asset to our program.”
Thomas has developed a reputation as one of the nation’s best college baseball recruiters. Each of his Miami recruiting classes from 1989-99 was ranked in the top 10 by Collegiate Baseball magazine. The 1989, ’92 and ’94 classes were ranked No. 1, and the 1991 and ’99 classes were ranked No. 2.
“To have the opportunity to work with Skip Bertman and LSU baseball is a great honor,” said Thomas, “who is in Toronto on a recruiting trip. “I’m excited about getting started right away.”
More than 50 of Thomas’ recruits have go on to play professional baseball, including major leaguers like catcher Charles Johnson (Orioles) — a four-time National League Gold Glove recipient — pitcher Alex Fernandez (Marlins) and catcher Jorge Fabregas (Marlins). Thomas also recruited third baseman Pat Burrell, the No. 1 selection in the 1998 major league draft by the Philadelphia Phillies.
In addition to his recruiting duties, Thomas served as Miami’s hitting coach from 1996-99. In his first three seasons in that capacity, the Hurricanes posted a .334 team batting average and a .557 slugging percentage while averaging over nine runs per game. Miami’s 1999 NCAA championship team batted .333 and launched 104 home runs.
Thomas is a 1975 graduate of High Point (N.C.) College, and he earned a master’s degree from UNC-Greensboro in 1978. He was a four-year letterman at catcher, playing two seasons at Campbell University before completing his final two undergraduate years at High Point.
Thomas worked as an assistant coach at Clemson from 1979-85, before joining the Georgia Tech staff under current Miami head coach Jim Morris. Thomas worked two years at Georgia Tech, where he was elevated to assistant head coach. He was hired by legendary Miami coach Ron Fraser on October 13, 1987, and has since logged roughly one million travel miles in search of student-athletes for the Hurricanes’ program.
Thomas has three sons, and he is married to the former Maria Carmen Nateman.
Finally, why the name “Turtle?”
Thomas explained, “It wasn’t because I was slow, some kid in junior high school thought I looked like a turtle.”